so so Yeah. You you. you Let me bid you a hearty welcome to our Bible study and prayer meeting tonight, and let me thank you for joining with us. We're praying that the Word of God will be a blessing and a comfort to your soul even in these days. And so wherever you join us in the world, we welcome you to The Manseere in Portland, Owen, and we're very thankful for God's good hand upon us that enables us to gather again for our midweek Bible study. We're going to leave the meeting before the Lord in prayer. We're praying that our hearts will be prepared like good ground, ploughed up, ready to hear the Word of God. And so let's seek the Lord together and let's just cry to God that God will minister through his own precious Word tonight to all of our hearts. So let's seek the Lord together, please, in a word of prayer. Our loving Father, In the Saviour's all-precious name, we gather again to Thee, we resort to Thee, our God and our Father. We come to Thee through Thine only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate for all. Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all. We come to thee through him. We praise thee for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the great mediator of the new covenant. We thank thee for both priest and victim that he was. We rejoice that he offered up himself as the sacrifice for sin, and by that sacrifice he has put away our sins forever. As far as east is from the west, So far hath He removed our transgressions from us. We come, dear Father, aware of our need. We need, O God, to be taught of Thee. We recognize this great spiritual activity is not accomplished by the mere human intellect or by the skill or talents of any man or preacher or pastor. We recognise that if we are to be taught, Lord, we need the Spirit of God to be our teacher. And so in the words of the hymn writer, Spirit of God, my teacher be, showing the things of Christ to me. Open up the book, we pray. Lord, grant, dear Father, O God, the one who is worthy to open the book and to lift the seals are off, that he himself will come and Lord, reveal himself to us in the scriptures. We praise thee, O God, for the one, O the stone whom the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone. Rejoice that we are united to him, and we rejoice that the great edifice of thy church is being built day by day, moment by moment, hour by hour. We thank thee that the gates of hell cannot prevail against, O God, the building of thy blood-bought church. Bless thy saints wherever they be found tonight, whether in the province, whether locally, our own home congregation, or those, oh God, who are joining with us via these means in these days. We pray that every heart will be blessed, every soul encouraged. And Lord, we pray that our hearts will go out after Thee. So bless us in our homes and our families. Lord, we pray for our nation. Oh, may there be a great turning on to God. May there be no confidence placed in self or in others. Lord, we pray that men and women would seek the Lord and turn to him in these days. Grant, dear God, a great influx of souls into the Redeemer's kingdom. Lord, we pray that thy blood-bought church might be built and, Lord, new stones added in. O Father, to thy great church we pray. We leave ourselves with thee. Come and bless our waiting souls, and encourage us in the Lord, and may we know thy blessing, even now as we meet around the Word, and then as we meet for prayer, for we offer these petitions in and through the Saviour's holy and precious name. Amen and amen. Well again, we welcome you in the Saviour's name, if you're joining with us, and we trust that the Lord will bless our hearts tonight. We've done a little bit of change with regard to the lighting. I don't know if it has made it any better or it's probably maybe just the same but I trust that it is coming through to you loud and clear and we'll hope to make a little bit of more amendments with regard to the sound in coming days and I trust that that'll be able even to help us with regard to that. We're learning as we go along and trying to make the experience for you as enjoyable and as beneficial to you. But with all of the aesthetics around us and, as it were, the lighting and the sound, it is our desire that it would be the word that will be the blessing to your heart and to your soul. So I trust that that will be the case even this evening. So if you have a copy of God's word let me invite you to take it and turn to 1st Samuel and the chapter number 7. 1st Samuel chapter 7 tonight and let's take the word and let's read it together. 1st Samuel and the chapter 7 and we'll begin our reading at the opening verse. It says, And the man of Kirjath-jerim came fetched up the Ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abimidad in the hill and sanctified Eliezer his son to keep the Ark of the Lord. It came to pass by the Ark of Boden, Kirjath-Jerim, that the time was long for it was twenty years and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. And son you'll speak on to the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtoreth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the children of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtoreth, and served the Lord only. And Samuel gathered all Israel to Mizba, and Samuel said, gather all Israel to Mizba, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. And they gathered together to Mizba, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, we have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizba. And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizvah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, and he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, until they came under Beth-char. And Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shean, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coast of Israel, and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. We'll end our reading at the conclusion of verse 13. And with the word of God before us open, let's just once again unite in a word of prayer, please. Let's pray together, please. O God, our Father, we do come before Thee once again in Jesus' name. We come by the way of blood, sacrifice, by the way of the Lamb. Lord, we claim all of His merit for us. We thank Thee for the virtue and the victory of the blood and the voice of the blood that cries in heaven for our acquittal. We come, dear God, now around thy word. Lord, may the word live. May it be that sword. May it be that which will quicken us. May it be that which will challenge us. And may it be that, oh God, that will comfort us. And so draw near. Send thy spirit upon this preacher. May he know the anointing of thy spirit. Lord, to preach to this, virtual congregation before him. Grant thou, dear God, a portion, a double portion from God, I pray. And may God's blessing be upon this Bible study and this word, for I pray this in and through the Saviour's holy and precious name. Amen. My text for this evening's Bible study is found in the words of 1 Samuel chapter 7 and the verse number 12. I want to focus my comments primarily on the meaning of the name Ebenezer. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. We as a congregation have considered and meditated upon these words before. I believe it was the last Lord's Day of the year 2017. But I want us to look at them afresh because these were the words that God worked into my soul for tonight's meeting. Since the month of March, our nation's industry, education and economy has almost ground to a halt. These are unprecedented times in our nation and in our world, as well as fearful times for many. We have our present fears about our own health and about the well-being of our loved ones, our friends and our neighbours. And then we have our fears about the future, especially when it comes to the recovery of our nation, the recovery of its economy and the recovery of our freedoms that have been taken from us. For some they have their fears about their job in the future and I suppose attached to those fears are fears concerning how their home repayments are going to be made, how they're going to provide for their family, and what they're going to do if they are left without employment at the end of it all. I believe the words of our text this evening ought to allay our fears, for they encourage us, they encourage us to look to the past to see God's provision, to see God's protection given to us in the past, and allow those past mercies to encourage us and to help us to face the uncharted path that lies before us in the coming days, weeks, months, and years ahead, if the Lord wills and if he tarries. In light of what we have already passed through since the outbreak of COVID-19. I would dare say that all who are listening to this message would have to raise a personal ebenezer and they would have to say hitherto hath the Lord helped us. I believe that it is because of God's mercy and I believe that it is because of the cries and the prayers of God's people that our nation has been spared the worst to present of all of the ravages of this strain of coronavirus. It is of his mercies that we have not been consumed. And as we look at his mercies to this juncture, to this moment of time, I believe that we as a people, and we as families, and we as individuals, would have to raise our ebenezer and say hitherto half the Lord helped us. There are a few matters that these words in 1 Samuel 7 and verse 12 highlight to us. The first matter that they highlight to us is that a review had taken place. A review had taken place. That review is highlighted to us in the word hitherto. hitherto. As a word it means up until this moment. That's what it simply means. Up until this moment hath the Lord helped us. For Samuel, God's prophet, to be able to say that up until that moment God had helped them, he had to look backwards and he had to trace God's gracious hand, and God's providential dealings with himself and with the nation of Israel, for him to be able to say, hitherto hath the Lord helped us. History had to be recalled. Past events had to be recollected. Incidences that happened previously had to be remembered by God's servant for Samuel to be able to make this emphatic faith statement, hitherto hath the Lord helped us. The memorial stone, Ebenezer, as it stood between Misbah and Shein, look back on 20 years, the 20 years of patient work and arduous labor of the prophet Samuel as he had led and guided the people of God. It looked back, we would say within its context, it looked back to that great event, that glorious moment when God intervened on behalf of his people Israel as the Philistines drew near to attack even these people in the midst of their religious observance. We're told that God thundered, verse 10, with a great thunder in that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them and they were smitten before Israel. And so with this event fresh in the mind of Samuel, Samuel has to declare, hitherto have the Lord helped us with only evidence. With evidence only a few moments ago, it's as if he's saying we only have to look back a few hours to find an event, to find an occurrence where we have known the help of God. And so he's reviewing, he's looking to the past. Yes, he also looked to the time whenever the poured out this offering on to the Lord and fasted on the day and whenever he had saw Israel return to God he would have to say God helped, God has helped us as a nation to return back to him when he saw the children of Israel put away the strange gods when he saw them put away Balaam and Ashtaroth in verse 4 And for them to serve the Lord only, Samuel has something else to praise God. There's God working again in the hearts of my people, in the hearts of my kinsmen. God has brought them back to himself. There's been restoration and I saw God's help in it all. Think about the time whenever the Ark of the Covenant was stolen. and how the Philistines took it down and placed it into their own temple to Dagon and how God inflicted punishment upon the Philistines. They carry it here, there and yonder and every place it goes. There's judgement, pestilence, plague comes upon the inhabitants of the particular place. So much so that they send the Ark of the Covenant back with two kind on a cart brought back to the place where it ought to have been. Surely, as Samuel looked upon that, he could say, hitherto the Lord helped us in. But that stone, raised as a memorial to God's dealings with Israel, looked further back than Samuel's short 20-year career at the helm. No, no, it looked back to the time when God helped the children of Israel to divide, conquer, and subdue the promised land in the days of Joshua. It looked back to the time when God had brought the children of Israel through the river Jordan ending their wilderness wanderings. It looked back further than that to when God supplied the needs of his chosen people over a 40 year period with manna, quails and water in the wilderness under the leadership of Moses. Ah, but it looked back further than that. Look back to the time when the Red Sea was parted and the children of Israel was provided a way of escape from the pursuing Egyptian army that itself was overthrown in its waters as it attempted to do the same as what God's people had done. Ah, but it looked back further than that. Look back to the point in Israel's history when they were emancipated from the bondage of Egypt after the dissemination of the nation of Egypt and the demise of the nation as a result of 10 plagues. It looked as far back as that, but the stone looked further back than that, brethren and sisters. It looked back to the time when Jacob's sons had to go down to Egypt to buy corn to secure their survival as a family. God helped them then. Look back to the time when Jacob met his brother Esau, whom he thought he was going to butcher him to death with a band of men 400 strong. God helped the nation in the loins of Jacob Lane. Look back to the time when Jacob would spend the night in an open field and lay his head upon a pillow surrounded, I'm sure, by many a predator and many a wild animal. There's the nation of Israel in the individual, in Jacob himself. And surely as they looked at God's leading and guiding in Jacob's life, Samuel's stone was saying God helped even then. Ah, but it looked further back than even those events. It looked back to the time when Isaac's life, Jacob's father, was preserved on Mount Moriah through a ram being offered up in his stead and thus saw to the preservation of the nation of Israel that would come forth out of his loins. Aye, and it looked back, it looked back to the very founder, to the very father of the nation, Abraham, when he was called from his idolatry. out of the earl of the Chaldees on the other side of the flood, and how God led him, and how he had followed the leading of God to a land that he knew not of. From its very inception to this moment of time, Samuel was able to trace God's help, God's leading, God's provision, God's protection, in every event in Israel's history, at every juncture of her history. Whether looking at the nation at the micro level of its founder, Abraham, or at the macro level of Abraham's entire offspring, Israel knew the help of God down through her existence. And this stone publicly witnessed to that very fact. Hitherto have the Lord helped us. But let me bring the message closer to our lives. Let me ask every Christian this question. Is it not the case that you as a believer, as a Christian, have known the help of God since you first trusted in him. Have you as a Christian, have you not found him to be a very present help in trouble, as well as a very present help out of trouble? Have you not found him to be one who has helped you? You see, it's all well and good for us to be able to recall and to review God's help for the nation of Israel, or how God helped other individuals like David, how God helped individuals like the apostles within the Word of God, how God helped Paul during his ministry whilst he was on earth. All well and good for us to experience or to read of God's help to those down through church histories whose autobiographies and biographies we can read. But brethren and sisters, it's more interesting and it's more profitable for us to mark the hand of God in our own lives. To mark the hand of God in our own lives. You just take a few moments and recall to your mind the faithfulness of your God down through the years since you first came to faith in Jesus Christ. I want you to think about all the prayers that he has answered for you. All the prayers that he has answered for you. Prayers about your own needs. Prayers about your own fears, your own concerns. Prayers for the salvation maybe of some Precious loved one of yours, prayers for the family, prayers for the children, prayers for the grandchildren, prayers concerning the work of God and the advancement of the cause of Jesus Christ's kingdom and church. Such a catalogue of answered prayer. Surely you can say tonight, hithertoeth, Hitherto hath the Lord helped me. Think about the power that he has imparted to you. There have been times when you have been weak. Weak in faith, weak in body, weak in mind. Yet God imparted his strength to you so that you were enabled to engage again in the normal duties of life. Surely on remembering all the times that God has imparted his power to you, you can say tonight, hitherto hath the Lord helped me. Think about the provision that he has granted to you. Daily bread and much beside has been your portion. He provided for you a godly spouse, a precious family, a stable job, a sound church, a safe minister. All we have needed, His hand has most certainly provided. And surely with all of the provision God has made for you along life's journey to this juncture, you can say tonight, hitherto, if the Lord help me, as I think of His provision. Think about the protection that He has given you, Like John Newton, we can say through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. God has surely protected us both physically and spiritually, protected us from physical and spiritual dangers. I think of the physical dangers, those that I face, sickness, accidents, even death itself. And yet he has protected me even from such things. And then I think of the spiritual dangers that I face as a Christian on a daily basis from that great trinity of evil, the world and the flesh and the devil. And I consider how God has protected me from temptation, from coldness, from backsliding, from slothfulness. And yet he has protected me so that none of these things have fully overtaken me. Surely with so many incidences of God's protection in your life, whether it be from physical danger or from spiritual danger, you could say to night hitherto, hath the Lord helped me? What about the peace he bestowed to you? The storms of life around you have raged, no doubt about that, but His peace saw to it that your heart was not overwhelmed with needless or careless fear. Peace rolled in. Peace consoled the heart. Peace calmed the spirit. Peace, the path of all understanding, became your portion, your experience. And you can say, in light of it all, hitherto, if the Lord helped me. What about the personal presence of God that has been made manifest to you? I ask you the question, have you ever known the Lord draw near to you? Maybe it was in prayer. Maybe it was in a time of trouble. Maybe it was whenever you were found lying on a trolley making your way down to some operating theatre and God himself drew near and went with you and manifest his presence to you in a most wonderful, in a most special, in a most precious way. there's been a time, a time when you have sensed his presence in a manner that was beyond what you had ever experienced before in your Christian life. Have you ever known God making good on that promise that he made there in Isaiah chapter 43 verse 2, when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon you. If you have ever experienced his presence, then you would have to say, on the recollection of such times, hitherto hath the Lord helped me. He helped me. Tonight in that heart of yours, raise an Ebenezer. Erect an Ebenezer. An Ebenezer to God that is motivated by grateful thanksgiving, that acknowledges that up until this moment of time, the Lord has helped you. As we live in the throes of this coronavirus pandemic, I believe that we would have to acknowledge that as a nation and as a congregation and as families, hithertoeth the Lord helped us. How grateful we are. And tonight we raise in Ebenezer in grateful thanksgiving that God has helped us to this moment. Let us not take God's mercies for granted, or expect them as if we are owed them. But rather, let us acknowledge his mercies, and let us make the same confession that Jacob made in Genesis 32, verse 10, when he said, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies which thou hast shown unto thy servant. A second matter that these words in 1 Samuel 7, verse 12 highlight to us is that a realization had dawned. A realization had dawned. There were two things that Samuel came to realize as he reviewed the history of God's people up until this juncture in their life as a nation. The first realization that had dawned upon Samuel was this. The insufficiency of man. The insufficiency of man. Notice those two last words in the verse 12. Helped us, helped us. Those words revealed to me that they needed help and they revealed to me that I as a Christian, I need help. I need help. From the most mature Christian in our church fellowship to the newest convert, we all need God's help. God's help to live the Christian life. Every Christian who understands their own heart and who knows their own weaknesses will readily assent to the fact that we dearly need the help of God. We dearly need his help. Samuel Wesley said, we all need help from God. Christians need assistance from a power superior to their own, as certainly as did Israel at this crisis. Sin, which has robbed man of his original rectitude, has also deprived him of strength. Unrescued by divine grace, he is utterly powerless. Nor does the most mature Christian possess the least spiritual energy, but as he receives it from on high. None of us, preacher, elder, Christian, none of us can boast that we have made it thus far in our Christian lives by our own strength or by our own power. Every day, we have needed the help of God because we are insufficient of ourselves to meet all that God's providence brings our way. Not only have we come to realize through our own personal failures that we are insufficient of ourselves to live the Christian life, but we've also come to realize that any earthly helper that we have trusted in or relied upon is unable to help us in our time of need? Human helpers have all at some point reached the end of their abilities when it comes to helping us, even when they were willing to help us. And more than willing to help us, they find themselves to be unable to give us help. They've come to the end of their ability. It is through this and through the dawning of this realisation of the insufficiency of man that God helps us to see how helpless we and others are so that we may cast away our confidence in self and in others and in turn cast ourselves entirely upon the one who alone can help us. even our God. And so it dawned upon Samuel, it was the Lord who helped us. He does not say, hitherto did the armies of Israel help us. Hitherto did I help the people of God. Godly Samuel. No, no one helped them but Jehovah. And that brings us to the second realization that dawned upon Samuel when he uttered these words in 1 Samuel 7 verse 12. Namely, not only the insufficiency of man, but it dawned upon him about the all-sufficiency of God. The all-sufficiency of God. God all-sufficient. It dawned on him. It was the Lord. Who does Samuel attribute Israel's help to? He attributes her help to Jehovah. Hitherto hath Jehovah helped us, the Lord. The Bible makes it clear in both Old and New Testaments that God is the help and the helper of his people. Consider the words that we find there in Psalm 33 verse 20. Our soul waiteth for the Lord, He is our help and our shield. Psalm 40 verse 17, But I am poor in the day, Yet the Lord thinketh upon me, Thou art my help and my deliverer, Make no tarrying, O my God. We come back again to our motto text for the congregation in Portlanone. Psalm 46 verse 1, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 54 verse 4, behold God is my helper, the Lord is with them that uphold my soul. In the book of Hebrews 13 verse 6 we read, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. God is the help and the helper of his people, the all-sufficient God, this self-existent, this self-satisfied, this God, this Jehovah, the great I AM, this is the one who has helped them, God all-sufficient, He's all-sufficient for every crisis, every trouble, every trial. And so this stone as it's raised, it's raised as a memorial to the all-sufficiency of the help of Jehovah. Think with me about the nature of the help this all-sufficient God provides for His people. A number of thoughts here. His help is suitable. His help is suitable. The help we need, is the help that we receive from our God. It is help that is suited to the trial, tailored to the problem, appropriate for the need. Remember this, Christian. The help of the Lord is always equal and appropriate to your need. The help of God is always equal and appropriate to your need because His help is a suitable help. Secondly, His help is seasonable. Seasonable. God's help, like His comfort that we thought about last Wednesday night, comes to us at the right season, when it is most needed. God's help is found at the right time. at the appropriate season, at the proper juncture, God sends his help to his people. His help is never early, but it's never late either. It comes to us just on time. Help is on the way. Something else, his help is sure. The help that others would offer to us. I'm sure you've had someone. I'll help you in that particular matter. I'm sure you've had someone give you that offer of help. But there are times whenever that help is not forthcoming. They fail to make good on the promise, the commitment that they make to you. But never God's help. Never. God's help is always sure and certain. You know, Samuel, he couldn't point to one single incident in the past. From Israel's inception to this moment of time, he couldn't point to one single incident in the past when God's help was not forthcoming. It was sure. It was sure. And something else, it's steady. What I mean by that is that having received God's help in the past does not disqualify us from receiving help from Him today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. It doesn't disqualify us. Because God's help is like an ever-flowing river. It's constantly, it is steadily, it is perpetually, it is continuously coming to us from the all-sufficient God. Like an ever-rolling stream, like an ever-full river, His help coming to us. Having known such help from God in the past teaches us the practical lesson to have faith in God now. And not only to have faith in God now, but to have faith in God as we press into the future. Having helped us previously, he will help us presently. And that's all we're guaranteed. The here, the now, the present, this moment of time, that's all we're guaranteed. Tomorrow may take care of itself, but today, now presently, I can know his help. Let us also acknowledge that whatever past victories we have secured in the past, whatever present successes we are experiencing in our lives, And whatever future accomplishments, whatever they will be, it will all be due to the help that God imparts to us as his people. It will be because the Lord has helped us that we will know victory, we will know success, and we will accomplish those things to his glory. It is because He will help us. There is a third very quickly and a final matter that these words highlight to us, namely a reliance that was being reaffirmed. In these words, a reliance that was being reaffirmed. When Samuel named this stone Ebenezer, he not only had a backwards look when doing so, he also had a forward look. was looking forward. The word heather too is a little like that two-armed signpost that you would meet at the end of a t-junction. You ever come to an end of a t-junction and there's only two directions to go and one arm points in one direction? And the other arm, it points in the completely opposite direction. That's a little bit like the word hitherto. The word hitherto is like the signpost. It points us backwards. It points us backwards. But it also causes us to look forwards. And as Samuel looked forwards, I believe in naming this stone Ebenezer, he was reaffirming his and his nation's reliance upon God for the future. It's as if he was saying, yes God, Lord you've helped us until this point in our history, but we believe and we are trusting that thou wilt help us in the future. You're going to help us in the future as well. As one preacher reminds us, hitherto is not the end. There is yet a distance to be traversed. more trials, more joys, more temptations, more triumphs, more prayers, more answers, more toils, more strength, more fights, more victories, more slanders, more comforts, more deep waters, more high mountains, more trips of devils, more hosts of angels yet. And then comes sickness, old age, disease and death. And yet, through it all, God All-Sufficient will help us through. Brother, sister, there is still more road for you to travel before you get home. Heaven, I speak of. But comfort yourself with this thought as you look ahead on that uncharted road. As sure as God has helped you to this moment, he will help you to the close of your days on earth. He will help you through death's valley and across death's river. And he will help you safely into heaven itself. He's going to help you. and he's going to help me. And so be of good courage. And with well-grounded confidence in your God, raise your Ebenezer tonight. For he who hath helped thee hitherto will help thee all thy journey through. Tonight, those of us who have experienced and known God's help in their lives, we can say in the words of Robert Robinson's great hymn, Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure, safely too, arrive at home. Ebenezer, hitherto hath the Lord helped us. May we continue to know God's help in these days in which we live. May the Lord be pleased to bless his word to your heart tonight for Christ's sake. Amen. Before I turn off the recording, let me give you just a few prayer points just to remember as we always do before we get to prayer. Want to encourage you to pray and to take that time whether you are there as an individual at home or whether you join as a family. It takes some moments and some time together just to pray to seek the Lord for his blessing upon even the work of God. Remember please the Lord's Day services they do continue via Facebook Live 12 noon and 6 p.m. Do your best to make those meetings known. and the broadcast with regard to our Lord's Day services, 12 noon and 6 pm. If you do have spiritual need, you can contact us via Facebook Messenger, via the telephone here at the Manse, 02825 821 765, or by the church email, PortlandOwn, all one word, FPC, all together, athotmeal.co.uk, and we'll be able to help as best we can with regard to your spiritual needs in these days. Keep the family of God, please, in your prayers. We're very thankful that everybody is well within the congregation. Our brother, Mr. Paul Allen, is doing well and is content in the nursing home there in Antrim. But pray for our brother Paul, our sister Sarah. We know that our sister, Mrs. Allen, is watching in tonight. Remember Patsy Boy in your prayers. Patsy began his cancer treatment on Monday and that will be for I believe four weeks every day as he makes his way down to the City Hospital. Pray for God's hand even to be upon Patsy. Remember please our Prime Minister, our government, remember our local executive and all of the decisions that they have to make. I would venture to say And I know, personally speaking, that I wouldn't want the responsibility that these individuals are being placed with, even in these days, the decisions that they have to make. Let us be good citizens in these days. God calls us to be that. And we're very thankful that, though we cannot meet publicly in a church building yet, Our services have not been curtailed by legislation. We're still able to broadcast. The gospel is still able to go out. Pray for those who are lonely. And there are those that are lonely and they're missing the fellowship of God's people and they're missing the fellowship of family. And remember in prayer, those who are feeling the loss of loved ones as well. And I suppose, folks, we could pray for that dear family down there in Ballycastle and what tragedy has come upon that dear family and pray for that dear man and that little child. I believe it's Hannah in the hospital. We can pray for them and may our hearts go out to them. May we love our neighbour as ourselves and for others. who have experienced loss in these days. May the Lord be pleased to draw near to them. So keep us in your prayers, remember all the little recordings and do your best to be in your place on the Lord's Day with your family and give that time over to the Lord and let's be faithful. The Lord knows how faithful we have been and if there has been unfaithfulness, well then let me encourage you to put that right and resolve from this moment that you'll be in your place and that you'll find the Word of God to be a blessing and a challenge to your heart. So let's seek the Lord together briefly in a word of prayer and let's call on his name and let me then encourage you to pray as a family or as an individual. Let's seek the Lord together in prayer. Father in heaven, we do thank thee that thou hast helped us to this moment. Not a day, not a moment, not a trial, have we ever found that Thou hast forsaken us, or that Thou hast withdrawn Thine help from us? But Thou hast been our Helper, and we raise an Ebenezer and say, hitherto hath the Lord helped us. And therefore, as we go into the unknown future, we are emboldened with fresh confidence that God will help us all, for he has helped us in the past and he changes not. We pray, Father, for thy people. Lord, encourage their souls in these days. Help them, Lord. Those who are working, keep them safe. Lord, those within the congregation who do work in the NHS and then beyond the congregation, Lord, keep thy good protecting hand upon them and bless them. Keep us all well and safe. And may, dear Father, none of this come upon us, we pray. And grant, dear God, us to be able to meet again at some moment, dear Father, in the future. And then, Lord, we'll again raise an Ebenezer and say hitherto, if the Lord helped us. Bless, Lord, those who are lonely, those who are sad, those who need the lifting up of their hearts, O God, to thee we ask, Lord, that thy hand will be upon such. We pray for that family that has experienced such tragedy in recent days. Lord, draw near and we pray that in the shadows that they'll find the Saviour. Lord, answer prayer and be with us now as we seek thy face as a congregation. May prayer rise, dear God, from the hearts of thy beloved ones. And Lord, answer these petitions. because we offer them in Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen. May the Lord bless until we join again for worship.